Posted on 04/29/2010 5:20:19 PM PDT by SandRat
CAMP CROPPER, Iraq – Representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross met with military leaders and visited detainees here, April 23, to assess the USF-I Theater Internment Facility's operation and treatment of Iraqi prisoners.
The Red Cross delegation was welcomed by Col. Grace Edinboro, commander of the 49th Military Police Brigade’s Tactical Command Post, and Lt. Col. Eric Mullai, commander, 192nd Military Police Battalion, the unit currently overseeing TIF operations. The ICRC representatives met Maj. Gen. Nelson Cannon, USF-I deputy commanding general for detainee operations and provost marshal general, to conclude their week-long visit.
This visit is one in a series the ICRC commits to Iraq detention facilities, according to Mullai. The committee is an independent, impartial organization that focuses on protecting the lives and dignity of armed conflict victims. The ICRC has been visiting Iraq detainees held by U.S. forces since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
"They meet with detainees to check how things are going. They make sure detainees are treated to standard," Mullai explained. "Their reports go straight to the top, all the way up to the Secretary of Defense."
ICRC's evaluation thoroughly reflects U.S. operations, says Maj. Daniel Murphy, 192nd's operations officer. It's important that U.S. Soldiers uphold international humanitarian law and it's the ICRC, as well as other neutral organizations, that help determine that.
"They're objective eyes," Murphy stated. "They're here to see the treatment of detainees, to make sure they're given their basic rights and treated with dignity."
"If we do what we're supposed to do, when we're supposed to do it and how we're supposed to do it, we have no issues," added Mullai.
Most importantly, Mullai explained, if a U.S. service member is imprisoned anywhere in the world, he should be treated humanely just as the Soldiers at Camp Cropper treat these detainees.
"The key is to apply the Geneva Conventions across the board," said Mullai. "If ICRC sees we're doing that and if anything happens to one of our Soldiers, they can see if our Soldiers are taken care of."
The Geneva Convention is a worldwide agreement that sets standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. According to ICRC's website, Article Three of the Geneva Convention also gives ICRC the right to request access to persons detained in non-international armed conflicts.
Visiting captives detained by the Iraqi government, U.S. forces and other regional authorities remains a top priority for the ICRC, as does the restoration and maintaining of links between members of families separated by years of armed conflict.
"Detainees have the right to live in decent conditions, to receive proper health care and to be treated humanely, no matter what the charges against them might be," said Carole Pittet, the ICRC's coordinator for detainee-welfare activities in Iraq. "These are their basic rights. When people are deprived of their freedom they should not be deprived of their rights."
The organization has been in Iraq since 1980 and is involved in efforts to establish the fate of people missing in connection with conflicts involving Iraq since that time.
Information provided by ICRC states that in 2009, "it has visited around 16,000 detainees in 22 places of detention in Iraq. In addition to monitoring treatment and conditions of detention, the ICRC helps to restore and maintain contact between detainees and their families."
"The mental and physical well-being of the detainees is critically important," said Luca Falqui, an ICRC physician who visits Iraq detention centers. "If detainees live in a healthy environment, there is less risk that disease will develop or spread. That is good not only for the detainees themselves but also for the detaining authorities."
According to ICRC's website, it has been visiting people detained in connection with armed conflicts since 1915. The committee's practice of visiting combatants captured in international armed conflicts was enshrined in the Geneva Convention of 1949, to which all participating nations abide by.
Each year, the ICRC visits roughly half a million prisoners and detainees in more than 70 countries worldwide.
The visits aim to ensure that the detainees' life, dignity and fundamental right to legal protections are respected, and also to prevent ill-treatment and enable the ICRC to track detainees' whereabouts and make recommendations to the authorities concerning any improvements in the conditions of detention that may be necessary.
Will they ensure fair victim care also?
I can see them protecting American prisoners of Al Quaeda now. Does this guy realise how stupid he sounds.
If I were CIC I would tell them to go away and come back with a report on our prisoners...
The Red Cross had value long long ago. Now, it’s nothing but another rat bag of cosmo transies, neo-marxists, rabid anti-Americanists and blatant worshipers of the ideals of a suicidal western culture.
Valid targets, the lot of em, in a sane and rational world. In this one? A protected species, bent on giving all aid and comfort to the enemy as they can manage, much like the msm.
I believe hanging is traditional, but death by musketry is also an option.
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